


Kaleidoscope

by VoidofRoses



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dib is a clone AU, Dib’s subconscious brain sucks, Dib’s thirty here stop clutching your collective pearls about age, Gen, M/M, co-rulers Dib and Tallest Zim AU, enter the florpus didn’t happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-09-24 14:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20359783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoidofRoses/pseuds/VoidofRoses
Summary: Tallest Dib has been awake for days when Zim forcefully activates his PAK’s sleep mode.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First Invader Zim fic in... *counts* fourteen years? idk I’m just a fandom grandma who’s been hyperfixated again since the movie came out on Netflix a few days ago. This probably doesn’t make any sense as I just started typing and didn’t bother checking to see if it did.
> 
> Enjoy!

The walls were a ghastly grey colour, seeping into the floor that stretched out before him, his shadow reaching across into the abyss of the classroom corridor. Why Dib’s subconscious decided that school was the best place to dream about, he had no idea, but he let his hand trail along the lockers as he walked, fingers lingering over the graffiti tags and the cracked and dinged metal.

He knew this dream - knew it as well as he knew the stars in the Vegas quadrant, as well as he knew the drones working the ship currently flying his body through space.

The tip of his hand lingered on Ms Bitters’ classroom door, the window into the room shattered, fingers touching the doorknob as he pondered why. Why dream of this place, when there was so much out there? Why dream of this place, when he’d seen alien life on planets far superior, had slunk through the black markets and cities of worlds that were nothing like Earth had been?

Dib’s hand opened the door without acknowledging that thought, heavy footed boot falls echoing in the room as he stepped in and closed the door. The room shifted, and he muttered a “fuck” under his breath as the dull classroom gave way to an even duller kitchen, a single circular table with two chairs seated either side. He sighed, a little in annoyance, as he sat down in one and had a cup of tea slid across to him.

“What is it, dad?”

It wasn’t Membrane. Not the real one. The real one had perished when the Earth had been destroyed. The armada’s weapons had seen to that. Now thirty, Dib was beginning to show signs of looking like his father - the sharp jaw lined with scruff, the physique and height, the quiff of his hair that sleeked down his back like Irken antennae. He leaned his head on his upturned palm and reached for the tea that didn’t exist, huffing.

“You haven’t been sleeping, son.” The almost perfect copy of his father looked at him, brow furrowing in concern behind his goggles as he dabbed the tea bag in his cup. “I thought it necessary to induce sleep before you fell off the bridge.”

“I haven’t been sleeping because it leads to things like this,” he muttered into his tea cup, glancing away and refusing to look at the hallucination. “My PAK would have alerted me if I needed sleep.” The Irken technology had long since been injected into his back, nestled snugly along his spine and glowed a brilliant blue in the dark. Zim had insisted on it not long into their reign of the empire, when he’d started showing signs of human frailty. Insomnia had always been something that had plagued Dib, but falling asleep in his command chair or in the labs was just embarrassing.

Membrane paused, glancing over his son’s shoulder at the item in question, before he blew on his tea and withdrew his gaze, even though it was impossible for things to be hot or cold in this dream world. “It’s not healthy, Dib,” he said, latex gloved fingers curling around his cup. The hallucination’s voice lacked the dramatic flare that his father’s had, instead quiet and humble. “...Actually, Zim asked me to do it.”

Dib’s brow raised, cup clinking to the table as he took that in. Being the one who had developed his PAK, Zim had access to it. It was possible. “Why?”

“He’s worried about you.” Membrane paused. “I am too, for that matter.”

“You don’t exist. How can you feel worry?”

“I told you once before.” There was a squeak as a glove-clad finger ran around the rim of his cup. “You are my son. I will always worry about you.”

Once before. Back when Dib had discovered in files from his father’s home laboratory that he was just a clone. He’d been fifteen, rifling through them in the hopes of finding some kind of weapon plans that he could modify for his fight with Zim, when he’d come across the files. As though unbidden, a filing cabinet slipped into existence alongside the kitchen counter, its contents spilled out all over the white floor before one came to a stop at his feet. Dib didn’t need to look down to see that it was a profile that held pictures, paperclip askew in one corner flaring them out.

“I’m not your son,” he argued tiredly, lips pursed to his cup of tea that didn’t exist. “I never was.”

Membrane sighed, not pressing the topic, before he set his own cup down on the table with a clink. “If you won’t rest, then I can at the very least run something mind-numbing.”

The kitchen shifted to a living room, couch stretching for miles but Dib and the hallucination that resembled his father sat one seat apart, a large tv in front of them. This room was dark, completely black except for the static on the tv that flicked off as it began to play the opening credits to _Alien_. Dib scoffed. “Really?”

“I thought you might like it,” Membrane said, leaning back with one arm draped over the couch and one leg crossed over the other.

“I’ve faced worse than a xenomorph, but okay.”

\---

Zim let his claws linger in Dib’s hair as he rested the human into the bedchambers that had been set up for him long ago, back when they’d first taken over the empire. Before Zim had convinced him to acquire a PAK. The item in question glowed faintly on his mate’s back, the gentle blue echoed around the room, Dib’s cheek resting on his arm and drool dripping from the corner of his mouth onto the pillows.

“Silly Dib-stink,” he muttered, frowning as he heard throat clearing. Rolling his eyes, he looked over his shoulder to where Skoodge was standing in the doorway, rocking back and forth on his feet. “Yes, yes. I’m coming.”

“The empire won’t run itself, my Tallest.” The shorter Irken’s voice was teasing, laughing softly even as Zim shoved him out of the way as he stalked out of the room.

“Whatever. Don’t let him be disturbed,” he snapped to the drone guards standing outside the room as Skoodge hurried to walk alongside him, bringing his clipboard from his belt and flipping through it. “Until he has slept through at least one sleep cycle. Am I understood?”

“Yes, My Tallest.”

\---

Membrane looked at the head on his shoulder before he softly clapped his hands and the tv and couch disappeared, replaced by a bed. There was no walls or ceiling, only the vast kaleidoscope of stars that stretched out around them as he set Dib down gently.

The PAK hummed and thrummed softly, whirring as the human entered sleep with his head on the pillow and face practically buried into it. He tucked Dib in, hands curling around his shoulder with a squeeze, turning to go. A hand reached out to curl around his metal wrist, feeling a tug as he looked down.

He sighed softly and sat down on the edge of the bed, crossing his arms and one leg over his knee. “I suppose it won’t hurt,” Membrane muttered, closing his eyes as he leaned back, looking out at the stars around them. He knew, logically, that the world had been destroyed, that he was merely a fragment left over from the cloning process that had dislodged itself when the PAK had connected to Dib’s psyche.

He also knew, logically, that he was the lingering image of a man who had been dead for years. Logically, he should disappear.

But like this, he was watching over his son as he traversed the galaxy, even if just at the back of his head. He had no qualms about the conquering thing, or about the fact that Earth had been destroyed. Membrane had done things in the name of science that he...really shouldn’t have. Questionable things, like cloning himself, and then raising that clone to be his heir without telling them the truth.

His head hurt.

Rubbing his temples, Membrane looked over his shoulder and brushed Dib’s hair back before he disappeared into the recesses of his memories, into the PAK’s data, leaving the Tallest to slumber peacefully for the first time in days.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dib wakes from his forced sleep irritated more than he had been. Talks are had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have a continuation of the first part. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with this at all but I wanted to get this out of my system first

The sound of heavy footfalls echoed along the corridor as drone and guard Irkens alike scrambled to get out of the human’s way, coat shifting behind him with each stride as he made his way towards the bridge of the Massive.

Tallest Dib had woken from his sanctioned sleeping room in an even fouler mood than before his PAK had been forcefully placed into sleep mode by his mate, and the scowl on his face said it all. Rumours had floated around the spaceship during the rest cycle, and the guards stationed at the door to the bridge jerked back from whispering in each other’s antennae at his approach.

“M-my Tallest! You’re, ah, awake...” the guard to the left stammered as they clutched their weapon to their chest.

Dib raised an eyebrow, holding his chin up as he placed a hand on his hip. “Is he in there.” It wasn’t a question, a growl to his voice as the guard to the right nodded before he reached to push them aside.

“Ah, my Tallest, y-you...”

He didn’t listen, palm pressing to the door and the ‘whoosh’ it made as it shifted up into the ceiling announcing his presence. Zim sat in his command chair, talking animatedly to one of the flight drones and Skoodge, who balked when he saw the look on Dib’s face. The shorter Irken tapped Zim’s arm and pointed in his direction.

Zim’s antennae perked when he saw him, before they flattened against his head at the look on his mate’s face as Skoodge and the drone scampered to their positions. “Well good morning, sunshine,” he said sarcastically, turning the command chair as Dib marched over. “I wasn’t expecting you to be awake for another few...”

“What the Hell was that about?” Dib’s voice made several drones cringe, their fingers tapping over the keys on the screens in front of them. Zim gave him an impassive look, brows raising as his fellow Tallest towered over him, hands clutching the back and one armrest of his command chair. “You can’t just force someone to sleep, Zim.”

“You hadn’t rested in five sleep cycles, Dib-monkey,” he replied calmly, claws tapping together as he drew his hands in front of him. “If I didn’t force you soon, your PAK would have.”

“Warn a guy next time.” Dib huffed as his scowl shifted, tilting his head to press a kiss to Zim’s jaw that the drones pretended not to see. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Zim tilted his head to nuzzle Dib’s cheek. The sound of furious typing was the only noise in the room before Skoodge cleared his throat. “If you take your seat, I’ll catch you up.”

Dib pulled back and flopped into his chair, a few feet away from Zim’s. He slouched, one leg crossing over the other in a manner that reminded him vaguely of his father. He shoved that thought away. “I hope you didn’t do much planning for Impending Doom 4 without me.”

“Not a whole lot.” Zim motioned for Skoodge to hand Dib his notepad screen, leaning on his elbow on one armrest. “Our flight path will take us past several planets not already on the Empire’s registry. I thought you might like to pick the teams to send down to search for life.”

Dib’s fingers flipped through Skoodge’s notes, eyes adjusting to the Irken language as his PAK translated for him. “I have a few in mind,” he agreed, fingers splaying to widen the display in front of him. “Man, you guys really missed a lot during the first two operations.”

“Red and Purple preferred to fly straight, my Tallest,” Skoodge replied, not entirely understanding when Zim and Dib looked at each other and started laughing. His puzzled look was replaced by one of concentration as he was handed back his notepad, looking at the Irkens that Dib had picked for the exploration section of the invasion. “In any case I will inform the chosen few of their new missions.”

He saluted and left the bridge with a drone assistant following along behind him.

Dib leaned back in his chair, sighing as he watched the stars reaching out in front of the ship. “Please tell me that’s the only order of business today.”

“Well, we do have a meeting with Lard Nar, but that’s not until later,” Zim said with a roll of his hand, before he glanced at Dib. The human was leaning back in an almost absurd manner, one foot propping itself up on the edge of the seat and the other sprawled languidly out in front of him in a way that made the drones scuttling about doing work jump over it. Zim scooted his chair closer, reaching for one of his hands. “If it makes you feel better, I’m sorry for forcing your PAK into sleep mode.”

Dib looked down at the hand over his and turned his over so his palm was up, lacing his fingers with Zim’s three claws. “Apology accepted I guess,” he muttered, tracing his thumb along one claw. “Did you miss me?”

“Of course.” Zim stood from his chair, closed the distance and slanted himself into Dib’s lap as the human straightened himself, claws clacking against the curve of the seat. “It’s incredibly boring,” he whined nasally, antennae pressing back to his head. “Skoodge doesn’t understand Earth jokes or terminology.”

Dib rolled his eyes before pressing his lips to Zim’s cheek, stubble scratching against the Irken’s skin. “Maybe next time you should just sleep next to me. The Empire can run itself for one cycle.”

“You know there are rumours of a rebellion,” Zim murmured, pink glaring under green skin as he stroked his claws along Dib’s palm. “If the both of us had our defences down...”

“We can handle it.” Dib pulled his head back to give Zim a reassuring look. “We took down Red and Purple and the Control Brains, and I was twenty. I didn’t know Irken biology as well as I do now.” He reached up to press his index finger between Zim’s eyes where his nose would be if he had one, watching him go cross eyed. “And we have an alliance with the Resisty. We’ll be fine for one night, Zim.”

Zim pursed his lips together as he looked at his mate, concerned, before he sighed and leaned in to nuzzle him, “I suppose you’re right, dirt worm.”

“I’m always right, it’s just that people rarely listen.”

He was shoved and Dib let out a bark of laughter as Zim pouted at him. They’d be fine.

They’d be fine.

...he hoped.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fragment reeled back all of a sudden as alarms started going off around them, the quiet kitchen setting disappearing and the light darkening to a deep red. Membrane stood and Dib backed away from where he’d been leaning, watching the bars come down with a loud “clang”.
> 
> “That’s...not good, right?” Dib asked, turning to the shadow of his father, who shook his head.
> 
> “No. We’ve been locked out of the PAK.”

“You again.”

Membrane turned around, looking at him with a serious expression on his face. It almost reminded Dib of his actual father and made his gut churn with something that he might have considered guilt. The dreamscape resembled the kitchen again, and the fragment was sitting at the table with a cup of tea in front of him in the next second. Dib remained standing.

“What now?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, brow creasing as he rubbed at his chin. Setting the cup aside, Membrane snapped his fingers and a screen appeared in front of him, tapping on it. Dib came closer and leaned against the table with his hip, tilting his head to look as he crossed his arms. The Irken Doom language flicked across the screen at a disturbing pace, green coding for the most part that reminded Dib of those old hacker movies. “I didn’t receive any orders.”

Dib frowned deeply, fingers digging into his arms. Zim had promised him he wouldn’t force sleep without his consent. So what was...

The fragment reeled back all of a sudden as alarms started going off around them, the quiet kitchen setting disappearing and the light darkening to a deep red. Membrane stood and Dib backed away from where he’d been leaning, watching the bars come down with a loud “clang”.

“That’s...not good, right?” Dib asked, turning to the shadow of his father, who shook his head.

“No. We’ve been locked out of the PAK.”

Dib felt his spine shiver cold as he clenched his fists at his side. “I need to wake up,” he whispered, though it sounded so loud that it echoed around them with the thunderous alarms blaring. “I need to...”

Membrane spread his hands in a half circle and summoned up several screens, beginning to tap away at lightning speed. “I’m going to try to find the source and delete it from this side,” he said, screens flashing in the shadow of his goggles. “I...”

A sudden screech alerted him to turn his head to find Dib doubling over, arms behind his head and fingers clawing at the PAK on his back, though it wasn’t the real one. Membrane stopped his tapping and the screens disappeared as he hurried to his son’s side as Dib fell to his knees, kneeling down next to him to hold him up and grapple for his wrists, holding them apart from his body. “Son?”

“It...it hurts,” he sobbed out, head hanging as his body began to spasm, glitching. “It hurts. Make it stop.”

“Hang on.” Cradling the human to his chest, the fragment let go of his wrists and supported him with one arm as he summoned up the screens again, ignoring the tormented screams directly in his ear as it felt like the world was crumbling around them. Membrane remained kneeling, Dib pressed against him and his nails dragging along the skin of his arms, looking for the source of the problem.

There.

The alarms stopped blaring and Dib fell into him in a way that caused Membrane to fall onto his backside, legs sprawled out underneath them and Dib’s just as so. His shuddering stopped, as did the glitching, his sweaty forehead pressing into the high collar of his lab coat. Weakly, his hands grasped at the arms as Membrane rubbed his back soothingly, above the PAK, before a tsking sound interrupted them.

“Why’d you have to go and ruin my fun like that, huh?” Membrane looked up as a dark blue light shimmered in front of them, before it peeled back to reveal...Dib, with his arms crossed and pouting. A wicked smile split his lips into a grin. “Although I must admit I might have gone a bit overboard.”

“What are you?” Membrane spat, the Dib in his hold turning his head to look at the copy in front of them.

“What in the...”

“And here I thought you were the smart one.” The copy splayed his fingers in front of him and linked his arms behind his head, rocking back and forth on his feet. “Guess I was wrong about that. I’m Dib of course.”

“N-no you aren’t,” Dib responded, pushing away from Membrane and standing, feeling the fragment stand behind him in support. “I’m Dib.”

“Well, I’m part of you anyway.” He spread his arms, the surroundings transforming into the...bridge of the Massive? Dib raised an eyebrow as he looked around before glancing back at the copy, watching its skin start to turn a shade of green that wasn’t natural for humans. “Oh? Zim never told you? The PAK on your back is resourced from the copies made before you two staged your little coup.” He grinned menacingly, revealing sharp teeth. “I’ll let that sink in for a moment.”

Dib’s face paled, looking up as the Control Brains glared back at him, their bright red spots flooding the area with light. “No! Zim...I...we made sure...”

They’d erased all traces of the Control Brains, he was sure.

“Ah well, it won’t do me any good to explain my existence to you,” the copy said, tilting his head as antennae sprang from hair that seemed to melt into his skull. His grin only seemed to widen. “I left you a present on the outside. Why don’t you be a good boy and wake up now?”

“Dib, don’t...”

“No, I’m waking up.” Dib shook his head and looked at the fragment of his father, who was already beginning to fade. “I’ll try and contain things from the outside. You...”

Membrane nodded, his voice echoing around them as the copy started laughing at the notion. “I’ll try and erase him from in here.” His brow furrowed with worry but before Dib had the chance to ask what was wrong, he woke.

\---

He woke to bright lights above him, a groan leaving his throat as he attempted to sit up, but found his wrists tied with restraints over his head. Dib fell back to cold metal, hearing the sound of weapons being readied and he turned his head to look.

Zim and several guard drones stood around him, and it wasn’t until the other Tallest snapped his fingers to dim the lights that he saw why their weapons were drawn and ready. Dib’s eyes widened in horror - blood was smeared along the walls and floor of the bridge, drone bodies laying limply or being helped up by other drones.

Skoodge was hovering over another Irken with a concerned look on his face, his own side bandaged with dried blood poking through. He barely glanced up to acknowledge that Dib had woken even as one of Zim’s spider legs slammed into the wall behind him, startling his mate to look up at him.

“In fourth grade,” Zim began slowly, his teeth grinding down in a manner that Dib hadn’t seen since the early days of their rivalry. “Where did our class go on a field trip?”

Dib blinked up at him, completely flabbergasted. “What...”

“Answer the question!” Zim’s spider leg drew back and made another hole in the wall, though the expression on the Irken’s face drew Dib’s attention. He was exhausted, worried and pleading in a way that only he understood.

He tilted his head to the side, sighing. “Trick question, because we didn’t go on a field trip. You sent us through a wormhole where our eventual stop would be a room with a moose...if I hadn’t made everyone move to the other side of the bus.”

Zim seemed to sag and he drew forward, wrapping his arms around the human Tallest. “Thank Irk.” He muttered the thanks a few more times before he pulled back when one of the guards cleared their throat, kneeling in front of him and then pulling his hand back to punch him in the shoulder. “What were you thinking?!”

“Ow!” Dib drew back and reached to rub his shoulder, finding it sticky with blood that he hoped wasn’t his, as callous as it sounded in his head. “What was that for?”

“I turn to speak to you and you’re half asleep on your feet. Next thing I know you’re slaughtering half our flight crew,” Zim yelled at him, hopping to his feet and waving his hands erratically in the air. “We need them to fly the Massive, Dib!”

“Hey, I wasn’t exactly in control,” he snapped, standing with his arms in front of him since his wrists were still cuffed. “My PAK started acting weird.”

Zim stilled at that, turning to gesture at the guards to move along and help the many wounded on the deck, before he turned back to his mate. “Acting weird? How?”

Dib shrugged and tilted his head, looking down at himself. He froze, seeing the Irken blood on his uniform staining it a bright pink, then glanced at Zim. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Zim scoffed, but took hold of him by the elbow and began leading him out of the bridge, away from the chaos of his own creation. “Nothing can hurt the mighty ZIM,” he said with a languid wave of his hand, before he fell quiet and shook his head. “No. I’m fine.” Zim swallowed back the bile in his throat, looking at Dib and then glancing away. “What did you mean by weird?”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said, stopping in the middle of the hallway and ignoring the soldiers and medical officers rushing past them to the bridge as back up. Dib leaned against the wall and watched Zim unlock his cuffs, rubbing at his wrists. “In my mental scape there’s this...helper? I guess you could call him that. Anyway, I was talking to him and alarms suddenly started going off.”

“That would be about the time you started acting...off,” Zim said cautiously, watching his mate slide down the wall of the corridor to sit on the floor. He crouched down next to him, draping his arms over his knees. “What happened next?”

“Zim...” Dib looked at him as he inhaled, then glanced down at his hands. They were pink with blood too, and no matter how hard he tried to rub it off with his thumb it stained. He stilled, feeling a hand clamp down on his elbow and he glanced back up again. “You didn’t tell me that my PAK was from the cycle before our coup.”

Zim paused, reaching to scratch the back of his neck almost sheepishly. His own cheeks were smeared with blood, the shade colouring in pretty splatters down his uniform. “It never crossed Zim’s mind,” he admitted, and Dib noticed that he looked uncomfortable. “I didn’t want to, but it would be another cycle before we could ensure that the next generation would be entirely free of the Control Brain’s encoding.”

“We knew that going in,” the human said quietly, reaching for the hand in his elbow and giving it a squeeze. “A little warning wouldn’t have gone astray, because now I’ve got this little psychopath running around my PAK.”

Zim pursed his lips together, ignoring the commotion from the medical drones as they ran back from the bridge with Irkens in stretches. He moved to strategically block Dib’s view from them, reaching to tilt his chin. “Listen to Zim. It wasn’t your fault. The Control Brain residue must have taken control of the PAK.”

“I figured that already,” he muttered, closing his eyes. He could still see his own face melting away to give way to an Irken visage, the grin and the laughter echoing through his skull. Dib raised a hand to his head, rubbing it. “We need to figure out a way to contain it or destroy it, because I don’t want to...”

“We’ll figure something,” Zim said, tilting his head to look away as he crouched and pulled Dib into his arms, feeling the human sink into them. “I promise.”

He didn’t want to tell him that destroying the Control Brain residue might kill him completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well that came from nowhere. guess this is turning into a full blown fic after all
> 
> hope you enjoyed! come join me over @genderfluidgaz on tumblr and feel free to send me asks :’)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Kaleidoscope**   
_noun_   
_a constantly changing pattern or sequence of elements._

Dib rested on his stomach on top of the surgical steel of an operating table, head pillowed by his arms. There were murmurs coming from above him, Zim and a few of the other Irken scientists on the Massive taking notes and discussing the whole mess that his PAK had gotten them into. Zim insisted he was only there because he was concerned about their fleet but Dib had scoffed and held his hand as they walked to the labs anyway.

His legs were pinned to the table by cuffs, just in case he lost control of his body again. He’d insisted he had things under control for the moment but Zim had looked at him with a raised eyebrow and it was out of the question that they lose more soldiers than they could replace. The few that had been killed on the bridge were easy, but their leading scientists? Out of the question. Zim looked down at him, hovering over his mate with his fingers on the holographic board tapping away with clicks of his claws. 

Dib felt like speaking but he didn’t, listening instead to the chatter above him as he twirled the long lightning-bolt shaped piece of hair on his head. They spoke entirely in Irken, but Dib had been around them for long enough that he didn’t need his PAK to translate.

“Here are the blueprints I used,” Zim was saying, and Dib heard the telltale sound of the screen zooming in, imagining him spreading his fingers and pulling them apart from each other. “I made necessary modifications at the time but I never thought this would happen.”

“Thank you, my Tallest,” said one of the scientists - Lao, Dib thought her name was. She was one of the rare few with blue eyes and PAK lighting like his, which made her so memorable to those she met. “Has the virus been isolated?”

“I received word this cycle from the program,” Zim replies, and Dib knows he’s talking about the fragment of his father. His fingers clench around his elbows, but other than that he doesn’t make any comment, listening to tools being prepared. “It’s been isolated in a different part of the PAK. Here.” He tapped at the screen, indicating the location.

“Then we will need to act quickly.” Lao let go of the screen and came around to Dib’s front, taking the seat in front of him and causing him to look at her. “My Tallest, would you like to be sedated for this? It will likely cause you much pain for us to be rummaging around your PAK as we will be, though we know the location of the virus.”

Dib turned his head to look at Zim, who was looking at him with something like worry or pity. He had been sedated when the PAK had been attached to his body, due to the need to cut holes into his skin for the device to clamp itself into. Zim shrugged, leaning back on the heel of his boot as he crossed his arms over his chest. Dib pursed his lips together before nodding, turning his head back to her. “Yeah. Go ahead.”

Lao gave him a pitying smile before she reached to take hold of one of his hands, but not before saying “if I may be so bold”. She spread the skin of his hand between her fingers, looking a little fascinated but whether by the colour or the shape he didn’t know. Reaching over his head, she took a needle from someone, flicked it a couple of times and then took hold of his hand again as she inserted it into his skin. Dib only let a soft hiss leave his gritted teeth, watching the fluid be drained in before she gently pulled it back out, setting it down with a clink on the tray.

“There. It should start taking effect shortly. In the meantime...”

Dib didn’t hear what she had to say as she turned to Zim, rising from the stool in front of him. His world turned black, chin dropping to the table as he passed out.

\---

The sound of fighting stirred him awake to find himself floating around in nothingness.

Dib shook his head, getting used to waking in this void by now, and straightened himself upright...or as upright as he could assume that he was. A distance away from him, he could make out two figures, and he kicked off from where he was, practically swimming through the black.

“Stay back!”

The sudden voice echoing around him caused Dib to halt in his movements, and then a blast hurtled Membrane in his direction, the fragment spinning out of control before he stopped himself, and Dib imagined dirt being kicked up behind him at the skidding motion he made in the air. Getting a better look at him, he could see his clothes torn in places, lab coat practically ripped to shreds and mechanical arms showing. There were a couple of holes on his body where the attacks had hit, including one on his leg which caused him to collapse.

Ignoring the laughter coming from the Control Brain virus, Dib reached to help up the fragment of his father, frowning. “I thought you told Zim this was under control?” he questioned, receiving a shake of the head.

“It was,” Membrane said bitterly, hand going to his chest where another hole rested, this one larger. “I’m afraid I’m not strong enough, but I need to get him into the spot for extraction.” His brow furrowed behind the goggles, before he reached up to pull them down to look at Dib directly. They were a brilliant green that reminded Dib of coding - not the colour that his father’s actually had been from what he saw of them, but for some reason he found it comforting.

“Let me help,” he said, turning his head before a sharp jerk of something invisible pulled him back, causing him to let out a yell. Dib felt his heart pound in his rib cage, his ears flooded with the sound of his own blood pumping, barely registering Membrane’s shout of his name.

“Oh but I will enjoy reencoding you.” The purred voice made him open his eyes, glaring at the copy that stood in front of him, one of its PAK legs stretching out to lift his chin. Dib growled deep in his throat, feeling his arms being restrained by another spider leg behind him.

“I won’t let you,” he spat, feeling the claw trail up from his chin to his forehead where it pressed, hard, and felt blood trickle down his nose. “You can’t. I’m in control. This is _my_ body!”

“Poor foolish boy,” the copy Dib said with a lilting tone of voice, the corner of his mouth quirking as he started screaming. “_I’m_ in control. Look at your little guardian; he can’t save you. _Zim_ can’t save you.” The pressure began feeling like a headache, causing Dib to squeeze his eyes shut as he screamed. “Ah, here’s the brain, yes? Strange creatures, humans. Keep their brains in their heads, not in PAKs like Irkens do.” The virus grinned savagely. “But I do love a challenge...”

Suddenly, the pressure wasn’t there and Dib opened his eyes, wiping his wrist at his glasses and making the blood splattered there blur his vision, but he could make out Membrane tackling the Control Brain away from him, shoulder checking it into the distance and stopping himself from going further.

“Get away from my son!” The hum of engines echoed in the dark, vast void of nothingness, the sharp blue light of laser beams coming from the fragment’s hands nearly blinding Dib and causing him to bring his arms up to shield his face. The virus was pushed back, though it looked like it went to move forward before it let out an otherworldly scream.

“No! No, I will not be defeated by an _insignificant_...” It glitched and, shrieking in rage, reached to snag its PAK leg on Membrane’s collar, pinning him underneath as he started to be dragged by something that rose from the depths of the dark pits of Dib’s mind. “If I’m going down, you’re coming with me!”

Dib’s knees were locked into place before he leaped forward to grab onto Membrane’s hand, curling his other fingers around something in the dark and watching a burning red hole open up to swallow them. “Hang on!”

The virus shrieked as it disappeared with another glitch, dissipating like data with a flourish of zeroes and ones. Membrane remained, though his body was still in the gaping maws of the seemingly black hole object behind him. He turned his head to look at Dib, looking at him knowingly and smiling softly.

“It’s okay, Dib.”

“No. Just...just give me a bit of time.” Dib was pleading, his voice cracking with some emotion that he hadn’t felt since...forever. “I never...I still haven’t yelled at you.”

“I know, son.”

He scrunched his eyes shut, ignoring the blood sticky on his face and hiccuped. “I hated you. You never...you never believed me, no matter how much I nagged you. Great man of science and you didn’t even believe in the...the possibilities that...” Dib choked on his own words as the vortex picked up, digging his heels into nothing. “You never told me I was a clone, I had to find out for myself! I was never a son to you, just an experiment! I hate that I could never make you _proud_ of me like you were of Gaz!”

“But...you didn’t need to. I was _always_ proud of you.”

Dib’s eyes snapped open just in time to watch Membrane slip from his fingers, falling onto his back as the vortex swallowed up the fragment of his father, sitting up with a jolt as he watched it close, screaming himself hoarse.

It was over.

\---

Zim watched his mate as he tapped his fingers on the screen in front of him, looking sullen and almost...dead. It had been three days since he and the scientists had rid the remains of the Control Brains from Dib’s PAK, and Dib had been quiet. Never mind that Zim could talk enough for the both of them, but his partner’s movements were sluggish, shoulders hung and gaze staring out into the space around them.

Nudging his seat closer, he reached to take hold of the hand resting on the armrest, causing Dib to start and look at him, expression miserable in a way he hadn’t seen since their younger years. Zim gave what he hoped was a small smile, squeezing his hand in a way that he hoped was subtle enough to avoid looks from the flight crew, but thankfully they were concentrating on the flight path.

He was relieved when he felt a squeeze back, receiving a murmur of “I’m okay”.

That was enough for Zim. Dib would talk to him in time, and they would continue taking galactic conquest across the galaxy in a way that the previous Tallest never would have thought of.

For now, he sat back in his chair, joining his mate in watching the galaxy brush past their ship in a wide array of colours, stars in the distance unable to tell them where they would end up.

It was like the beginning all over again. And Zim couldn’t say he didn’t mind that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and there you have it :) I decided to finish this as it was rather than drag it out, but I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Please do visit and chat with me @genderfluidib on tumblr, and look forward to the next part of _it’s like destiny if if’s you_.
> 
> till then *lifts proverbial tophat*

**Author's Note:**

> come chat with me @genderfluidib on tumblr :)


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